


The Voice In Your Ear

by Emyrldlady



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Clint Has Issues, Friendship/Love, Ghosts, talking it out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 14:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1747589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emyrldlady/pseuds/Emyrldlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Phil talks to Clint in his dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Voice In Your Ear

**Author's Note:**

> Beta thanks go to AmazonX for her especially quick turn around as I am an impatient person and want to post immediately!

Clint knew it was a dream. He’d been having these awake/not awake dreams ever since New York. Sometimes it was just a replay of the battle with the rest of the Avengers. Sometimes it was the Hellicarrier with everything tinged in blue. Those were more memories than dreams.  
The dreams were when the dead talked to him. Like now…

They were in a hotel room. Like a dozen other hotel rooms they’d shared over the years. Generic, bland nightscape barely seen behind the sheer curtains. Coulson sitting at the desk, suit coat over the back of the chair and sleeves rolled up as he typed away at his laptop, as if he still had dozens of reports to complete. But he didn’t, not anymore.

“I don’t blame myself for your death,” he told Coulson in the dream.

“If you truly didn’t, then I wouldn't be here would I?” Coulson turned slightly towards Clint, eyebrow raised in question.

“Bastard.”

“My father would heatedly disagree.”

“Why are you here?” 

“You've got issues.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Considering I’m your subconscious self, you pretty much know all of this already. It’s getting boring Barton.”

“Psych gave me the all clear. I’m back on full duty. You don’t need to be here anymore,” Clint growled. 

“Maybe this is goodbye then?” Phil’s specter replied.

“Fine, then leave,” Clint said, trying not to convey the loss of even the ghost of his handler.

“I’m not going to leave Barton. I’m always going to be the voice in your ear, even if it’s just in your mind now.” Phil’s voice softened.

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“You’re gone. Everyone leaves, it’s just a fact of life. So don’t start spouting platitudes to me. It wasn't your style when you were alive. Don’t start playing Clarence now.”

“I’m deeply offended at the thought that I would have to EARN my wings, Barton. I was your handler for years, that should qualify me immediately,” Coulson teased.

“That’s sainthood. Totally different.” Clint replied smiling.

“True, it often was a heroic effort not to kill you.”

“Fuck you.” 

“Talk about missed opportunities.” Coulson smirked.

Clint flushed, he knew it was a dream if Coulson was flirting. “Why are you here? I haven’t had this dream in months.”

“Something big is happening. You know it. You've always had good instincts Clint, use them.”

“You were the only one who had faith in my instincts,” Clint huffed.

“Romanov has faith in you,” Phil replied in a softer tone.

Clint snorted. “And that’s why she’s been assigned to Cap right? Because she has faith in me.”

“Fury did that and you know it. You and Natasha work well together. I’ve never seen better, but someone had to teach Rogers that the morality he grew up with doesn't exist any longer."

Clint stared at Coulson. "Did I just lose my mind for a minute or did you just disparage your childhood hero?"

Phil shrugged, "Your sanity has always been in question Barton."

"I'm talking to a ghost who was stabbed to death by a god who had me under mind control. There have never been more questions."

Phil turned serious. "Barton, you need to shake this off. You've had time enough to mourn and to sort yourself out. You need to be on top of your game for what's coming." 

"What's coming?"

"I don't know because you don't know. But you know there's something coming." Coulson stood and rolled down his sleeves.

"Should I talk to Nat? Maybe Tony?" Clint watched him put on his coat and shrug his shoulders until it fell into place.

"You know the answers to that. Maybe Natasha knows, but she won't tell until her hunches are solid. Tony probably has no clue. He's still too self-absorbed for my taste. He claims to see the big picture, but it's you not him that does that." Phil powered down his computer, put it in his bag and walked to the hotel room door.

"Do you have to go?" Clint didn't want the dream to end. He didn't want to wake cold and alone again. 

"I have to, it's time." Phil smiled gently. "But like I said, I'll always be in your ear Clint." He turned to open the door. "You may want to get that, it could be important."

With that, Coulson faded and Clint could groggily hear his phone ringing. 

"Hello?" he answered still half asleep and clinging to his dream.

"Barton." Maria Hill's voice was crisp on the other end. "I need you for a mission. A set of twins have gone missing. They're special. It's a high priority that you find them. And Barton?"

"Yes Ma’am?"

"This is completely off grid."


End file.
